Our goal is to develop a unique, web-based knowledge portal on the History of Diseases that will serve as an innovative model for web-based courses, both for medical education as well as for other institutions of higher education. The information system will foster learning by combining synchronous, or real-time, class meetings with asynchronous, or "anytime, anywhere learning," class projects. The first aim will be to promote learning in medical students by adopting a blended approach, or a combination of synchronous and asynchronous class experiences, in designing a series of courses on the history of the diseases, beginning with an on-line seminar on Alzheimer's disease. The second aim is to create international learning communities consisting of medical school faculty and medical students from Michigan State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Nuevo Leon. The third aim is to design, implement, and evaluate an information system that will include a synchronous distance learning platform, a knowledge management system, and an interactive historical timeline. Centra Symposium, the leading synchronous distance learning platform, will be used to support real-time seminars and allow access to major medical databases. WebQuest, a knowledge management system, will be used to lead students to additional web sites for key course resources. A dynamic, interactive historical timeline will also be used to trace the history of Alzheimer's disease. Our final aim will be to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of both the History of Alzheimer's Disease synchronous, "live" class meetings as well as the asynchronous components of our information system.